More quotes from HALAKHIC MAN

The consciousness of homo religiosus is overflowing with questions that will never be resolved. He scans reality and is overcome with wonder, fixes his attention on the world and is astonished. . . . is the ultimate goal and crowning glory of the process of cognition of homo religiosus. p10

Homo religiosus is dissatisfied, unhappy with this world. He searches for an existence that is above empirical reality. This world is a pale image of another world. p13

Cognitive man, on the other hand, is not concerned at all with a reality that extends outside the realm of lawfulness . . . for the law is his goal, and lawfulness is always and only to be found within the context of concreteness. p13

These quotes capture the Rav's desire to focus our attention on the everyday world, on the here and now, on our own struggles and triumphants. He rejects any separation between the sacred and the secular -- all is one world in which we strive every day to understand and live out the will of God.